April 23, 2008

Doing Something Right

I check the homepage from my high school every so often so I can find out about exciting things (like winning a Grammy!??!). Today I saw this:

"New Diploma requirements"

Ooh, interesting. I followed the link, read the new requirements, and realized that the state of Oregon was finally doing something right in regards to education. Check out the changes:

# Number of credits: The minimum number of credits needed to graduate was raised from 22 credits to 24 credits.# English: The number of English credits was raised from 3 credits to 4.# Math: The number of math credits required was raised from 2 credits to 3 and these 3 credits must be at the algebra I content level or above.# Science: The number of science credits was raised from 2 credits to 3.# Second Language / Art / Career & Technical Education: The number of credits required in this area (any combination of the subjects) was raised from 1 credit to 3.# Electives: The number of required electives was reduced from 9 credits to 6.

More English (all four years), more Math (3 years, all at or above Algebra I (meaning Geometry and Algebra II at my school)), more Science (this means Bio, Chem, Physics at my school), and more awesome (includes CAD, shop, art, etc). As a result, elective requirements have dropped, diminishing the amount of schedule fillers that people normally take.

All in all, a recipe for smarter high schoolers and a good choice by the Oregon education system.

Yeah, those graduation requirements are interesting. They're getting rid of CIM and CAM and so they had to re-do everything. Some people aren't too happy about them, but they're going to (hopefully) improve Oregon education. Hopefully. ODE had an interesting PDF on it...